Collective reading can safely be called a trend, whether the choice of books emanates from a local club, a library or Oprah. A good number of cities and states have “One Book, One --- ” programs. (Fill in the geographic blank.)

“One Book, One San Diego,” jointly overseen by the San Diego Public Library and KPBS, has a new book it’s touting: “Outcasts United” by Warren St. John — its fourth pick — which continues the campaign’s emphasis on nonfiction. But another ambitious program, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, has been putting its energy behind lasting and exemplary fiction.

It’s called The Big Read and it’s been the catalyst (in funds as well as vision) for promoting American literature across the land. Locally, there has been programming for Harper Lee’s beloved “To Kill a Mockingbird” at the Encinitas Branch Library in 2008 and Ernest J. Gaines’ “A Lesson Before Dying” at the University of San Diego in 2009. And beginning Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m., the San Diego County Library system is kicking off a month and a half of programs surrounding the enduring 1939 American novel about hard times, John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” Marking the beginning of the local Big Read will be a festive event featuring live dance music of the ’30s, book-related activities and refreshments at the Ronald Reagan Center adjacent to the El Cajon Library.

It’s hard to miss the relevance of a novel about a now-iconic family. The Joads are forced to leave their home behind because of failing land and the bank takeover of their farm, setting in motion an arduous odyssey of survival. The U.S. economy may have avoided descending into a Great Depression during the current crisis, but widespread foreclosures are a tragic parallel between the ’30s and now.

In fact, in the planning that has gone into events designed to promote reading and discussion of “The Grapes of Wrath,” there was an ambition to mix practical and literary events, says Susan Moore.

“There are lots of ways to think about a book,” observes Moore, the county’s principal librarian for Adult Services, Literacy & Volunteers.

So along with bringing writers and scholars on Steinbeck and presenting a photography exhibition on his life, the county libraries are hosting sessions on foreclosure prevention, loan modification and changing careers.

There will also be multiple screenings of the classic John Ford film version starring Henry Fonda, workshops for creating crafts from the Depression era as well as partially staged readings of portions of a stage version by San Diego Repertory Theatre actors. For a complete schedule, visit sdcl.org/bigread.html

In the end, though, the emphasis, Moore insists, is on reading and the book itself.

“The thing I’m most excited about is the process of reading the book and joining in a conversation about it,” says Moore, who is overseeing the local “Grapes of Wrath” program. Toward that end, a spectrum of participating libraries, from Julian to Imperial Beach and numerous branches in between, will be hosting reading discussion groups and making copies of the book available.

Steinbeck’s epic-sized novel was, in fact, part of the first round of books chosen by The Big Read, when the program began back in 2006. And one of the authors who will speak, Susan Shillinglaw, a major Steinbeck scholar and author of “A Journey in Steinbeck’s California,” has given talks in Maine, Montana, Oregon and Louisiana on behalf of Big Read initiatives in various communities. She’ll be here to speak on “The Grapes of Wrath 2010: Migrants and Misdeeds,” on March 12 (Bonita Library) and March 13 (Encinitas Library).

“I have felt so fortunate to be able to talk about the book in different places,” says Shillinglaw, a professor of English who also directs the Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University. “One of the topics that has come up is collapsing economies and how to change, as in Enterprise, Oregon, where logging used to be central. The book speaks to that. It’s also about migration, which is still relevant. And while it’s not about race, people like Cesar Chavez responded to it because Steinbeck wrote so well about poor farm workers.”

Because Steinbeck wrote so vividly and sympathetically about the poor and about everyday laborers, agribusiness leaders in California’s Central Valley saw him and his writing as a threat to their economic interests. And journalist and historian Rick Wartzman explores this subject in his 2008 book, “Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath,’ ” which delves into an orchestrated campaign by Kern County growers to suppress the book. (Yes, there were burnings and it wasn’t allowed on bookstore shelves.) Another part of the story is the noble efforts of one librarian, Gretchen Knief, who battled the promoters of censorship.

Wartzman, a one-time journalist for The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times who now directs the Drucker Institute at the Claremont Graduate University, says that reaction to the book was symptomatic of the “class politics of the 1930s in California. William Camp, who brought the modern cotton industry into California, was behind the campaign to ban the book. He took a strong stand against unionization of farmworkers and saw Steinbeck’s book as a threat to that position. The book burning was a publicity stunt for the Bakersfield paper.”

The growers’ fear of the believability of the novel may have been well founded, since, as Shillinglaw points out, the book has “roots in journalism. It was rooted in his own work reporting on the plight of migrant farmworkers in California, a seven part series called ‘The Harvest Gypsies.’ ”

All of these dimensions and others of Steinbeck’s novel are built into the programming which takes place through March 13. Like every Big Read community program, this one is as much about connecting with others through reading as reading itself.

“The Big Read is an example of an NEA program that shows how art works,” says Jon Peede, director of literature at the NEA. “First, it celebrates great literature created by writers as diverse as John Steinbeck, Julie Alvarez and Tim O’Brien, Second, it brings communities together. And lastly, it uses literature to deepen our understanding of each other as citizens, family members, workers and individuals.”